History of Iraq

IRAQ, A REPUBLIC since the 1958 coup d'etat that ended the reign of King Faisal II,
became a sovereign, independent state in 1932. Although the modern state, the Republic of
Iraq, is quite young, the history of the land and its people dates back more than 5,000
years. Indeed, Iraq contains the world's richest known archaeological sites. Here, in
ancient Mesopotamia (the land between the rivers), the first civilization--that of Sumer--
appeared in the Near East. Despite the millennium separating the two epochs, Iraqi history
displays a continuity shaped by adaptation to the ebbings and flowings of the Tigris and
Euphrates rivers (in Arabic, the Dijlis and Furat, respectively). Allowed to flow
unchecked, the rivers wrought destruction in terrible floods that inundated whole towns.
When the rivers were controlled by irrigation dikes and other waterworks, the land became
extremely fertile.

The dual nature of the Tigris and the Euphrates--their potential to
be destructive or productive--has resulted in two distinct legacies found throughout Iraqi
history. On the one hand, Mesopotamia's plentiful water resources and lush river valleys
allowed for the production of surplus food that served as the basis for the civilizing
trend begun at Sumer and preserved by rulers such as Hammurabi (1792-1750 B.C.), Cyrus
(550-530 B.C.), Darius (520-485 B.C.), Alexander (336-323 B.C.), and the Abbasids
(750-1258). The ancient cities of Sumer, Babylon, and Assyria all were located in what is
now Iraq. Surplus food production and joint irrigation and flood control efforts
facilitated the growth of a powerful and expanding state.

Mesopotamia could also be an extremely threatening environment, however, driving its
peoples to seek security from the vicissitudes of nature. Throughout Iraqi history,
various groups have formed autonomous, self-contained social units. Allegiance to ancient
religious deities at Ur and Eridu, membership in the Shiat Ali (or party of Ali, the small
group of followers that supported Ali ibn Abu Talib as rightful leader of the Islamic
community in the seventh century), residence in the asnaf (guilds) or the mahallat
(city quarters) of Baghdad under the Ottoman Turks, membership in one of a multitude of
tribes--such efforts to build autonomous security-providing structures have exerted a
powerful centrifugal force on Iraqi culture.

Two other factors that have inhibited political centralization are the absence of stone
and Iraq's geographic location as the eastern flank of the Arab world. For much of Iraqi
history, the lack of stone has severely hindered the building of roads. As a result, many
parts of the country have remained beyond government control. Also, because it borders
nonArab Turkey and Iran and because of the great agricultural potential of its river
valley, Iraq has attracted waves of ethnically diverse migrations. Although this influx of
people has enriched Iraqi culture, it also has disrupted the country's internal balance
and has led to deep-seated schisms.

Throughout Iraqi history, the conflict between political fragmentation and
centralization has been reflected in the struggles among tribes and cities for the
food-producing flatlands of the river valleys. When a central power neglected to keep the
waterworks in repair, land fell into disuse, and tribes attacked settled peoples for
precious and scarce agricultural commodities. For nearly 600 years, between the collapse
of the Abbasid Empire in the thirteenth century and the waning years of the Ottoman era in
the late nineteenth century, government authority was tenuous and tribal Iraq was, in
effect, autonomous. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Iraq's disconnected, and
often antagonistic, ethnic, religious, and tribal social groups professed little or no
allegiance to the central government. As a result, the all-consuming concern of
contemporary Iraqi history has been the forging of a nation-state out of this diverse and
conflict-ridden social structure and the concomitant transformation of parochial
loyalties, both tribal and ethnic, into a national identity.

Beginning in the middle of the nineteenth century, the tanzimat reforms (an
administrative and legal reorganization of the Ottoman Empire), the emergence of private
property, and the tying of Iraq to the world capitalist market severely altered Iraq's
social structure. Tribal shaykhs traditionally had provided both spiritual leadership and
tribal security. Land reform and increasing links with the West transformed many shaykhs
into profit-seeking landlords, whose tribesmen became impoverished sharecroppers.
Moreover, as Western economic penetration increased, the products of Iraq's
once-prosperous craftsmen were displaced by machine-made British textiles.

During the twentieth century, as the power of tribal Iraq waned, Baghdad benefited from
the rise of a centralized governmental apparatus, a burgeoning bureaucracy, increased
educational opportunities, and the growth of the oil industry. The transformation of the
urban-tribal balance resulted in a massive rural-to-urban migration. The disruption of
existing parochial loyalties and the rise of new class relations based on economics fueled
frequent tribal rebellions and urban uprisings during much of the twentieth century.

Iraq's social fabric was in the throes of a destabilizing transition in the first half
of the twentieth century. At the same time, because of its foreign roots, the Iraqi
political system suffered from a severe legitimacy crisis. Beginning with its League of
Nations Mandate in 1920, the British government had laid out the institutional framework
for Iraqi government and politics. Britain imposed a Hashimite (also seen as Hashemite)
monarchy, defined the territorial limits of Iraq with little correspondence to natural
frontiers or traditional tribal and ethnic settlements, and influenced the writing of a
constitution and the structure of parliament. The British also supported narrowly based
groups--such as the tribal shaykhs--over the growing, urban-based nationalist movement,
and resorted to military force when British interests were threatened, as in the 1941
Rashid Ali coup.

Between 1918 and 1958, British policy in Iraq had farreaching effects. The majority of
Iraqis were divorced from the political process, and the process itself failed to develop
procedures for resolving internal conflicts other than rule by decree and the frequent use
of repressive measures. Also, because the formative experiences of Iraq's post-1958
political leadership centered around clandestine opposition activity, decision making and
government activity in general have been veiled in secrecy. Furthermore, because the
country lacks deeply rooted national political institutions, political power frequently
has been monopolized by a small elite, the members of which are often bound by close
family or tribal ties.

Between the overthrow of the monarchy in 1958 and the emergence of Saddam Husayn in the
mid-1970s, Iraqi history was a chronicle of conspiracies, coups, countercoups, and fierce
Kurdish uprisings. Beginning in 1975, however, with the signing of the Algiers
Agreement--an agreement between Saddam Husayn and the shah of Iran that effectively ended
Iranian military support for the Kurds in Iraq--Saddam Husayn was able to bring Iraq an
unprecedented period of stability. He effectively used rising oil revenues to fund
large-scale development projects, to increase public sector employment, and significantly
to improve education and health care. This tied increasing numbers of Iraqis to the ruling
Baath (Arab Socialist Resurrection) Party. As a result, for the first time in contemporary
Iraqi history, an Iraqi leader successfully forged a national identity out of Iraq's
diverse social structure. Saddam Husayn's achievements and Iraq's general prosperity,
however, did not survive long. In September 1980, Iraqi troops crossed the border into
Iran, embroiling the country in a costly war.

The Iran-Iraq war (1980-88) devastated the economy of Iraq. Iraq
declared victory in 1988 but actually achieved a weary return to the
status quo antebellum. The war left Iraq with the largest military
establishment in the Gulf region but with huge debts and an ongoing
rebellion by Kurdish elements in the northern mountains. The government
suppressed the rebellion by using weapons of mass destruction on civilian
targets, including a mass chemical weapons attack on the city of Halabja
that killed several thousand civilians.

Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, but a U.S.-led coalition acting
under United Nations (UN) resolutions expelled Iraq from Kuwait in
February1991. After the war, UN-mandated sanctions based on Security
Council resolutions called for the regime to surrender its weapons of mass
destruction and submit to UN inspections. The regime has refused to fully
cooperate with the UN inspections and since 1998 has not allowed
inspectors into Iraq. Iraq is allowed under the UN Oil-for-Food program to
export unlimited quantities of oil with which to purchase food, medicine,
and other humanitarian relief equipment and infrastructure support
necessary to sustain the civilian population. The UN coalition enforces
no-fly zones in southern and northern Iraq to protect Iraqi citizens from
attack by the regime and a no-drive zone in southern Iraq to prevent the
regime from massing forces to threaten or again invade Kuwait.

SOURCES: Country Studies/Area Handbook by the US Library of Congress,
U.S. Department of State